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10.11. Configuring an Additional Network Interface

Red Hat Satellite supports specifying multiple network interfaces for a single host. You can configure these interfaces when creating a new host as described in Section 10.4, “Creating a Host” or when editing an existing host.
There are several types of network interfaces that you can attach to a host. When adding a new interface, select one of:

Note

Additional interfaces have by default the Managed flag enabled, which means the new interface is configured automatically during provisioning by the DNS and DHCP Capsule Servers associated with the selected subnet. This requires a subnet with correctly configured DNS and DHCP Capsule Servers. If you use a kickstart method for host provisioning, configuration files are automatically created for managed interfaces in the post-installation phase at /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-$interface_id.

Note

Virtual and bonded interfaces currently require a MAC address of a physical device. Therefore, the configuration of these interfaces works only on bare-metal hosts.

10.11.1. Adding a Physical Interface

The following steps show how to add and additional physical interface to a host.

Procedure 10.12. To Add a Physical Interface:

  1. Navigate to HostsAll hosts to view available hosts.
  2. Click Edit next to the host you want to edit.
  3. On the Network tab, click Add Interface.
  4. Keep the Interface option selected in the Type menu.
  5. Specify a MAC address of the additional interface. This setting is required.
  6. Specify the device Identifier, for example eth0 or eth1.1. Identifier is used for bonded interfaces (in the Attached devices field, see Procedure 10.14, “To Add a Bonded Interface:”), VLANs and aliases (in the Attached to field, see Procedure 10.13, “To Add a Virtual Interface:”).
  7. Specify the DNS name associated with the host's IP address. Satellite saves this name in the Capsule Server associated with the selected domain (the "DNS A" field) and the Capsule Server associated with the selected subnet (the "DNS PTR" field). A single host can therefore have several DNS entries.
  8. Select a domain from the Domain drop-down menu. To create and manage domains, navigate to InfrastructureDomains.
  9. Select a subnet from the Subnet drop-down menu. To create and manage subnets, navigate to InfrastructureSubnets.
  10. Specify the interface IP address. Managed interfaces with assigned DHCP Capsule Server require this setting for creating a DHCP lease. DHCP-enabled managed interfaces provide an automatic suggestion of IP address.
  11. Decide if the interface will be managed. If the Managed check box is selected, the interface configuration is pulled from the associated Capsule Server during provisioning, and DNS and DHCP entries are created. If using kickstart provisioning, a configuration file is automatically created for the interface.
  12. Select the Virtual NIC check box to create a virtual interface. See Section 10.11.2, “Adding a Virtual Interface” for details.
  13. Click OK to save the interface configuration, and then click Submit to apply the changes to the host.

10.11.2. Adding a Virtual Interface

The following procedure shows how to configure an additional virtual interface for a host. This can be either a VLAN or an alias interface.
An alias interface is an additional IP address attached to an existing interface. Note that:
  • An alias interface automatically inherits a MAC address from the interface it is attached to, therefore you can create an alias without specifying a MAC address.
  • The interface must be specified in a subnet with boot mode set to static.

Procedure 10.13. To Add a Virtual Interface:

  1. Navigate to HostsAll hosts to view available hosts.
  2. Click Edit next to the host you want to edit.
  3. On the Network tab, click Add Interface.
  4. Keep the Interface option selected in the Type menu.
  5. Specify the general interface settings. The applicable configuration options are the same as for the physical interfaces described in Section 10.11.1, “Adding a Physical Interface”.
    Specify MAC address for managed virtual interfaces so that the configuration files for provisioning are generated correctly. However, MAC address is not required for virtual interfaces that are not managed.
    If creating a VLAN, specify ID in the form of eth1.10 in the Identifier field. If creating an alias, use ID in the form of eth1:10.
  6. Select the Virtual NIC check box. Additional configuration options specific to virtual interfaces are appended to the form:
    • Tag: You can specify tags per interface to provide a higher-level segmentation of the network. If left blank, managed interfaces inherit the tag form the VLAN ID of the associated subnet, given that this subnet has the VLAN ID specified. User-specified entries from this field are not applied on alias interfaces.
    • Attached to: Specify the identifier of the physical interface to which the virtual interface belongs, for example eth1. This setting is required.
  7. Click OK to save the interface configuration. Then click Submit to apply the changes to the host.

10.11.3. Adding a Bonded Interface

The following steps show how to configure a bonded interface for a host.

Procedure 10.14. To Add a Bonded Interface:

  1. Navigate to HostsAll hosts to view available hosts.
  2. Click Edit next to the host you want to edit.
  3. On the Network tab, click Add Interface.
  4. Select Bond from the Type menu. Additional type-specific configuration options are appended to the form.
  5. Specify the general interface settings. The applicable configuration options are the same as for the physical interfaces described in Section 10.11.1, “Adding a Physical Interface”. Bonded interfaces use IDs in the form of bond0 in the Identifier field. It is sufficient if you specify a single MAC address in the MAC address field.
  6. Specify the configuration options specific to bonded interfaces:
    • Mode: Select the bonding mode that defines a policy for fault tolerance and load balancing. See Table 10.2, “Bonding Modes Available in Red Hat Satellite” for a brief description of individual bonding modes.
    • Attached devices: Specify a comma separated list of identifiers of attached devices. These can be physical interfaces or VLANs.
    • Bond options: Specify a space separated list of configuration options, for example miimon=100. There are several configuration options you can specify for the bonded interface, see Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Networking Guide for details.
  7. Click OK to save the interface configuration. Then click Submit to apply the changes to the host.

Table 10.2. Bonding Modes Available in Red Hat Satellite

Bonding ModeDescription
balance-rr Transmissions are received and sent out sequentially on each bonded interface.
active-backup Transmissions are received and sent out via the first available bonded interface. Another bonded interface is only used if the active bonded interface fails.
balance-xor Transmissions are based on the selected hash policy. In this mode, traffic destined for specific peers will always be sent over the same interface.
broadcast All transmissions are sent on all bonded interfaces.
802.a3 Creates aggregation groups that share the same settings. Transmits and receives on all interfaces in the active group.
balance-tlb The outgoing traffic is distributed according to the current load on each bonded interface.
balance-alb Receive load balancing is achieved through Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) negotiation.

10.11.4. Adding a Baseboard Management Controller (BMC) Interface

This section describes how to configure a baseboard management controller (BMC) interface for a host that supports this feature.
Prerequisites

Ensure the following prerequisites are satisfied before proceeding:

  • BMC is enabled on the Capsule Server. If required, see Procedure 10.15, “To Enable BMC Power Management on an Existing Capsule Server:”.
  • The ipmitool package is installed.
  • You know the MAC address, IP address, and other details of the BMC interface on the host, and the appropriate credentials for that interface.

    Note

    You only need the MAC address for the BMC interface if the BMC interface is managed. This is so that it can create a DHCP reservation.

Procedure 10.15. To Enable BMC Power Management on an Existing Capsule Server:

  1. Use the satellite-installer routine to configure BMC power management on the Capsule Server by running the following command with the following options:
    # satellite-installer --foreman-proxy-bmc=true --foreman-proxy-bmc-default-provider=ipmitool
  2. Refresh the features for the Capsule Server.
    1. Log in to the Satellite web UI, and navigate to InfrastructureCapsules.
    2. Identify the Capsule Sever whose features you need to refresh. In the drop-down list on the right, click Refresh features. The list of features in the Features column should now include BMC.

Procedure 10.16. To Add a BMC Interface:

  1. Navigate to HostsAll hosts to view available hosts.
  2. Click Edit next to the host you want to edit.
  3. On the Network tab, click Add Interface.
  4. Select BMC from the Type menu. Type-specific configuration options are appended to the form.
  5. Specify the general interface settings. The applicable configuration options are the same as for the physical interfaces described in Section 10.11.1, “Adding a Physical Interface”.
  6. Specify the configuration options specific to BMC interfaces:
    • Username, Password: Specify any authentication credentials required by BMC.
    • Provider: Specify the BMC provider.
  7. Click OK to save the interface configuration, and then click Submit to apply the changes to the host.